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My fixed gear commuter bike was stolen Wednesday night from my locked back courtyard area and I’m pretty bummed out about it. The possibility of getting robbed in a city is always there but I guess you never expect it to happen to you. I’m really surprised at how personally attached I was to that bike, Thursday I alternated between bouts of anger and being on the verge of tears. It had seen me through thousands of miles commuting through Chicago city streets in all kinds of weather and, while it was no prize, it really had come to fit me like a glove. I also had no idea the value of it monetarily until I sat down and totaled up how much I spent on the various parts over the years:

Frame: 210
Wheels: 150
Crank/BB: 100
Pedals: 40
Saddle: 30
Tires: 40
Brakes: 30
Helmet (also stolen): 50
–
$650 in total

And given that I got a lot of those parts and pieces on sale or used my pocketbook isn’t looking forward to trying to replace it. I think finally getting renters insurance is on the top of the to-do list next week.

I guess the upside is I get to go through the joy of finding and building a replacement (not sarcasm by the way, it really is fun to build bicycles!) but it’s not something I have the time or heart for right now.

Bye bye baby, daddy misses you.

(more…)

Until the marathon.

AIEEEEEEEEEE!

I’m extremely excited and a little bit terrified.  I haven’t trained anywhere nearly as hard as I did last year, but hopefully a full summer of 20+ miles a day on my bike and generally good healthy habits will get me through.  I did my best 20 mile run so far last Saturday and came in at 2:51:12, which puts me on pace for about a 3:45-ish marathon, which is exactly what I finished at last year.  Considering I’ve probably only done about 1/4 the training I’ll be pretty pleased if I can pull off the same time or better.

Sitting on my desk is a Garmin Forerunner 301. It is a wrist mounted GPS/heart rate monitor that will accurately track all of my biking and running distances, speeds, locations, and heart rates and it will do so by just turning it on and telling it whether I’m biking or running. This is extremely cool.

I have a sneaking suspicion that I’m in gadget love.

The only question remaining? Why the heck aren’t I out using it?

Well I’ve been busy but a few things have been happening that deserve a good blogging. In no particular order:

I’m now in rehearsal for Toy Chest with the Tantalus Theatre Group. I think it’s really going to be an interesting piece. It’s a bit more focused than a lot of the stuff we’ve done in the past and I hope it shows when we reach opening night. The (slightly) scary part is I have to do a little dance/sing number. I’m not scared of the singing but I’ve got a pair of left feet when it comes to choreography so I’m a bit trepedatious about the dance number. We open March 10th with a preview on March 8th so mark your calendar now!

I’m feeding my bike addiction a new bike frame that’s in process of being built in my apartment right now. She doesn’t have a name yet, but it’d better be a fast one. Feast your eyes on this little number. It’s all scandium alloy and carbon fiber and it weights about as much as a cup of coffee. There will be more pictures along with my new track bike when all of the pieces get put together.

The bears have made it to the Superbowl. I think they may burn this city to the ground if they win it (although I predicted the same thing when the White Sox won the world series and I barely even noticed the celebration).

The big holiday party that my apartment was all decorated for in the pictures from the previous post was a huge success in more ways than one. I won’t get into details, but I’m pleased with the way life works sometimes.

So life goes on and these days I seem to be on the upside of it most of the time.

Wheeeeeee.

Ever since I started biking regularly on city streets I’ve been waiting for the day. Every regular bike rider gets hit by a car eventually and today my number was up. Riding down Ashland in the rain I was hit from behind by a SUV who clipped my shoulder with his mirror. He didn’t even stop. My front wheel jerked hard to the left and I took a header into the pavement. Luckily I’m fine other than a bruised up shoulder and my bike escaped in good shape too, just a few extra scratches on the already scratched up handlebars.

Now that I’m home and I’ve taken a shower and a few Advil I find rather than being scared or hurt I’m just pissed off. Drivers of big things with four wheels in the city don’t keep a very good eye on what they’re doing. I see people eating, talking on phones, applying makeup, and doing all kinds of other stupid shit while driving that really yanks my cord. So as a measure of protection for myself and other cyclists I’m going to make it a goal to talk to at least ten people about watching out for cyclists on the roads. I don’t know if it will help but I feel like it might.

Ride and drive safe out there!

Man do I need a beer.

As promised here’s a map of the course (there’s also a neat-o interactive one here). I should be moving at around 8:15-8:30 per mile. Given approximately a ten minute lag time to get across the starting line here’s a breakdown by mile marker where I should be.

All times are approximate of course. I’ve never done this before so I have no idea how much this will vary– Plan on as much as fifteen minutes either way and I think you’ll be safe.

• Mile 2– 8:26:30am-8:27:00am
• Mile 4– 8:43:00am-8:44:00am
• Mile 6– 8:59:30am-9:01:00am
• Mile 8– 9:16:00am-9:18:00am
• Mile 10– 9:32:30am-9:35:00am
• Mile 12– 9:49:00am-9:52:00am
• Mile 14– 10:05:30am-10:09:00am
• Mile 16– 10:22:00am-10:26:00am
• Mile 18– 10:38:30am-10:43:00am
• Mile 20– 10:55:00am-11:00:00am
• Mile 22– 11:11:30am-11:17:00am
• Mile 24– 11:28:00am-11:34:00am
• Finish Line– 11:45:30am-11:52:00am

If you’re planning on being on the course, drop me an e-mail or leave a comment here and let me know where you’ll be (what side of the street in particular) and I’ll keep an eye out for you!

2005 Chicago Half Marathon results

• Place in my age/gender bracket(25-29 male): 443 out of 561
• Place overall: 4306 out of 7145 finishers
• Age: 27
• Time for the first 1/2 of the race: 1:08:35
• Overall time: 2:14:43
• Pace: 10:17 per mile
• Afterwards: Hobbled to the bus, wrapped my feet in ace bandages and spent the rest of the day on the couch.

2006 Chicago Half Marathon results

• Place in my age/gender bracket(25-29 male): 191 out of 671
• Place overall: 1400 out of 8989 finishers
• Age: 28
• Time for the first 1/2 of the race: 56:01
• Overall time: 1:47:52
• Pace: 8:14 per mile
• Afterwards: Ran another 7 miles for marathon training then went for a bike ride with some friends.

Bring it Chicago Marathon. I’m ready for ya.

So Sally left me.  Well she ran away with Glen– Although he did pay me for her, so I guess it’s not such a bad deal.  The nice part is that made room in the hallway for Shannon (bigger!):

Shannon is a Bridgestone RB2 which was designed by the legendary Grant Petersen of Rivendell Bikes and I gotta tell ya, that guy knows his stuff.  Even with both wheels badly needing truing and air it rode like a tightly spinning gyroscope all the way home from the loop.  The only concern I have is that the rear hub is pretty much shot and the front chainring seems a bit warped (I’m hoping it’s just the big chainring) but neither one of those should cost too much to resurrect this classic.

If you happen to dig it check out Sheldon Brown’s page on the old Bridgestones– there’s quite a bit about them that’s well ahead of it’s time and it makes for some interesting reading.

When spell check goes horribly wrong.

Edit:  Grr Craigslist.. I knew I should have made a cached copy.

It was funny, someone was trying to sell a “Bicycle Hamlet” for $3… I suppose it looses a lot of humor away from it’s original source.  Bummer.